Truly Local

Alleged 'Pin-Hooker' Fights Back

The web site of the Cabell County Tailgate Farmers Market, in Huntington, West Virginia, promises that produce sold at the market “is delicious because it is home grown and fresh picked.” Shoppers who patronize the market, which is open six days a week, will “support local farmers” and “enjoy picked fresh this morning produce.”

I’m not sure how real farmers can manage to sell produce six days a week. But it’s good to know that the market management actually inspects farms to make sure the vendors are backing up the sales rhetoric by really growing what they sell.

The enforcement effort, however, didn’t sit well with one vendor, Debbie Shoemaker, of Scottstown, Ohio. She has lawyered up since getting kicked out following an inspection last summer, and has sued the market for bias, according to a Jan. 31 report about the litigation in the West Virginia Record.

Last summer, Shoemaker asked for and got a reinspection of the place where she said she was growing what she sold. But after the second inspection, a market official informed her that the suspension for last year’s selling season would stand. Shoemaker still isn’t satisfied that the market bylaws give vendors adequate recourse to contest allegations of cheating, and has taken her complaint to court.

The newspaper report about the lawsuit used a term for reselling produce that I haven’t seen before: pin-hooking.

Farmers From Outside County Not Allowed

A new farmers market in Brimfield, Ohio, plans to let in only farmers from that particular county and maybe from just beyond county lines. That's one way to make sure the produce and processed goods offered for sale are truly local. Is it perhaps too stringent a limit? Jessica Earley, the driving force behind the new market, summarizes the rationale:

"We'd like stick with Portage County farmers, but if someone from surrounding areas wants to come, like from Tallmadge, that's great," she said. "We want something for our local farmers to be able to show pride in their local produce."

The Earley family has run a 28-acre organic farm in Brimfield for 35 years. They also sell their produce at the Haymaker Farmer's Market in Kent.